BJE Banks

The highly respected retail business, Banks Ltd, is celebrating 50 years of successful retailing in Birmingham. The firm has its origins in 1954, when wife and husband staff Thelma and Brian Banks began their 1st shop, a DIY store, in Park Road, Aston. Mrs Banks well recalls that after a wealth of hard work the shop did very well, but Brian came home one day very distressed, having received a Compulsory Purchase Order from Birmingham City Council for the premises, which were going to be demolished so that the Aston Expressway could be constructed. However, never beaten, Mr & Mrs Banks began again, this time opening a shop at Stockland Green. At this point Mrs Banks's brother John Power, who had been a top apprentice at ICI, joined and became director of the DIY shop, having completed his National Service in the RAF.